This private colloquy was at this moment interrupted by the silence which suddenly prevailed throughout the hall. The secretary proclaimed the result of the voting.

“The ballot which has just taken place with reference to Pavel Ivanovitch Tchitchikoff, councillor of state, has resulted in the maintenance of his right, by 499 ayes against 87 noes. Mr. Tchitchikoff is admitted as a member of the assembly by a majority of 412 votes.”

“I congratulate you!” said the naval officer, turning to the unkempt gentleman.

“May the devil confound you!” replied the latter, and he hurriedly made off through the different groups of bystanders.

The reading of the list was then resumed, and concluded in half an hour’s time. Several propositions were then submitted to the assembly. Some of these proposals offered an occasion for a great deal of uproar, and the voices raised within the hall became audible outside. All the members who had contrived to appease their stomachs with a breakfast, without their absence having been noticed, held out. At each proposition, many still shouted and declaimed pro and contra at random. Some, apropos of nothing, demanded a ballot. However, all ended by feeling the prick of hunger, and were charmed to hear the governor adjourn the deliberations upon the seven or eight propositions which still remained to be discussed until the close of the elections. In fact, the actual, final resolution was, that the secretary was to be allowed full liberty in all these matters.

There is one good thing about these days of electoral assemblies —a man is able, if not always to obtain certain satisfaction for his self-love, at least to feast, and find relaxation from his ordinary cares. Very few gentlemen are to be met with who do not end by unreservedly signing everything that the secretary of the nobility presents to them, everything which he prepares, or means to prepare, upon numerous sheets of paper, without caring to hamper his agile pen, or even to spoil his appetite by annoying subtleties.

That evening our hero felt infinitely better than he had felt at the assembly. It is to be supposed that three helps of the pickled sturgeon and a bottle of old Chateau Larose, which he absorbed in order to get rid of the boredom consequent upon several hours of solitude, had a salutary effect upon his maxillary nerve; at all events, he had no occasion to place himself in the hands of any dentist. He took his round hat and a long, wadded surtout, and set out lounging about the streets, with a handsome Indian cane in his hand. All the houses in the town, all the lodgings, good or bad, the smallest chambers, the pettiest garden-pavilions, were filled to overflowing; the hostelries and restaurants were glittering with lights; their doors were fairly besieged with carriages, both public and private, of all sizes, shapes, and names. The so-called harmony of itinerant orchestras, composed of foreign artists, mostly Bohemians, rang out intrepidly and with impunity from several halls. The nobility were spending their gold in costly breakfasts and dinners. Excepting one or two highly renowned vintages, the only wine absorbed was champagne; whilst the only water partaken of was the famous natural seltzer water. Whilst they ate and drank to excess, proposing toasts of great originality, a vast quantity of promises to treat So-and-so with black balls, and the host of the day with white ones, burst forth as though bubbling from the heart. Vain words, forgotten as soon as uttered! On the following day the balls were dropped according to the impulse or the caprice of the moment, according to the influence of connections or the strength of parties, which became more sharply outlined at the decisive moment.

“At the last elections,” said Burdyakin to a friend at the street-corner, “the late So-and-so gave a third person the support which he had promised to me that very morning. He did not like to see me elected to that modest office. However, God punished him for his rascality: he died five months after his treachery.”

“One thing is certain,” replied the other, “that not one hair of our heads falls without the will of God. But to-day you want to become a judge; well, what shall you do in that office?”

“I? The first thing I shall do will be to attend to the things which my predecessor wrongfully neglected. As a preliminary step, I shall purify the audience chamber; and it is only after having had all parts of the